Munich Personal RePEc Archive
Total Sanitation Campaign - Changing Face of Rural Burdwan
Majumder, Rajarshi
Dept of Economics, University of Burdwan
August 2003
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/4819/
MPRA Paper No. 4819, posted 12 Sep 2007 UTC
Total Sanitation Campaign: Changing the Face of Rural Burdwan
1Rajarshi Majumder
Burdwan district of West Bengal is considered to be both the ‘Granary’ and the ‘Ruhr’ of Bengal. It has three distinct regions. The eastern and east-central parts are the agricultural powerhouses, the west is the mining area of Raniganj, and the central region includes the Industries and Educational and other services. But rural Burdwan like much of Bengal has been poor, despite the large rise in rural incomes since "Operation Barga” in 1982. Sanitary infrastructure has been underprovided in rural Bengal, and Burdwan is no exception. Only 27% families had access to sanitary latrines in 2001, and Open defecation has been the predominant practice. This has been causing great harm to the rural society. Diarrhoea and other water-borne gastro-enteritic diseases are too frequent leading to substantial adult deaths, high infant mortality. Snakebites during the monsoons also claim many lives as people venture out into the fields and ponds for defecation. But suddenly things are changing.
Thanks to a novel programme by the State Institute of Panchayat and Rural Development (SIPRD), the construction and usage of toilets has increased rapidly.
THE CAMPAIGN
SIPRD was quick to understand that the conventional sanitation programme in existence since 1994 had been a non-starter with only 35 thousand installations in 7 years, leaving a gap of 7.5 lakh families in 2001! It was a typical government programme left to be implemented without clear cut targets, incentives and involvement of people. SIPRD realised the need for a change in design. The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) started on 11th June, 2001. The District Development Authority or the Zilla Parishad was given the task of implementing the TSC through the institutions of the 3-Tier Panchayat system in West Bengal, with financial and logistical support from Central and State governments. Specific targets for each Block, Panchayat Samiti (PS) and Gram Panchayat (GP) were fixed. Prizes for best performer in every month and year were announced, creating a sense of competition among the administrators of these local self-governance bodies. Usually sloth public officials suddenly became enthusiastic.
Another fresh element of the programme was the technology, which allowed users to themselves install the toilet in their courtyard. Experts from WHO and SIPRD designed a water-washed concrete latrine platform with pan that should not cost more than Rs 350 after allowing normal profit. It was to
1 Acknowledgement is due to my senior colleague Prof. Pinaki Chakraborti and the Head of our Department Dr.
Kausik Gupta for assisting and encouraging me for this write-up. Uday Sarkar and Ramkrishna Bandopadhyay, present and former Sabhadhipati of Burdwan ZP respectively, and Shibashish Banerjee, District Coordinator of
be set over a soak-pit that would take 10 years for a family of six to fill up. Then all that needs to be done is to cover up the old pit and shift the platform to a new pit! NGOs were roped in to produce these latrines and gram panchayats (GPs) were asked to dig the pit for Rs 50. Thus, a family could install a sanitary latrine for Rs 400, and then fence it with sundry articles like plastic sheets or bamboo thatches. For families below the poverty line (BPL) the state subsidised 150 Rs and asked the family to dig up the pit themselves, reducing the cost to just Rs 200. The GPs conducted frequent meetings in the villages where the villagers submitted their contribution to the Panchayat officials.
Typically within 7-10 days the Latrine platform was sent to the home of the beneficiary. The GP then arranged for digging the pit in a few days, and installation of the latrine. After that the family was asked to suitably surround it with materials according to their choice and affordability.
The NGOs as producers and profit earners had an interest in more installations and they joined the local officials in promoting TSC. This was crucial. The villagers were advised, persuaded, coaxed and cajoled. Wall writings, Folk songs, street drama, puppet shows, etc. were arranged for awareness build-up. Role models like teachers and GP members were targeted first. Then the children and women of the neighbours were persuaded to create a sense of deprivation among them. The effect of demonstration was dramatic on the population. Once a threshold level of installation was achieved the programme gained momentum to create a demand for such toilets. UNICEF was roped in to provide sanitary latrines in the schools. This integrated approach broke the deadlock and created the necessary "big push". The authorities took a ‘block-by-block’ approach where the district administrations focused on one block at a time and supplemented local initiative with state support so that the block could reach full coverage.
IMPACT OF THE TSC
The success has been phenomenal. Against a target of 30 thousand installations in 2001-02, 34 thousands were installed. And in 2002-03 there was a revolution. Over 1.7 lakh latrines were installed which was in excess of the ambitious target of 1.5 lakh. More than two lakh families were covered in two years of TSC. As a result, 47% households in 2003 had access to toilets as against only 27% in 2001. More outstanding however, is the fact that three blocks of the district - Raina-I and II and Ausgram-I, have been able to provide access to sanitary latrines to almost all families. These three blocks with about 89 thousand families can thus be declared as “totally sanitised blocks”. And all these have been achieved at an expense of just Rs. 150 million. The beneficiary families have put up Rs. 103.5 million, the Central and State governments together provided Rs. 45 million, and UNICEF
TSC are the chief architects of the success of TSC as also the mainstay of our survey. I also thank my students who worked hard for the field survey.
provided Rs. 1.5 million. Rarely has this kind of success been achieved in a rural development programme. The benefits of such use of toilets are immense.2
Table 1: Progress of Total Sanitation Campaign in Burdwan District Block No. of Households No. of Latrines
Existing
Latrines Installed No. of Latrines Coverage % of all Households In 2001 Census in 2001 during 2001-03 in 2003 All BPL
All BPL All BPL All BPL All BPL 2001 2003 2001 2003 Burdwan-I 38933 21178 12708 2280 6615 5873 19323 8153 32.6 49.6 10.8 38.5 Burdwan-II 28855 15491 10735 2814 3234 3058 13969 5872 37.2 48.4 18.2 37.9 Bhatar 53505 30910 10718 1552 12094 10926 22812 12478 20.0 42.6 5.0 40.4 Ausgram-I 24164 15839 3080 308 21084 14704 24164 15012 12.7 100.0 1.9 94.8 Ausgram-II 30374 16521 3845 625 10595 8846 14440 9471 12.7 47.5 3.8 57.3 Galsi-II 29115 19131 5430 862 3268 3166 8698 4028 18.7 29.9 4.5 21.1 Raina-I 35169 22618 9747 2661 24455 19124 34202 21785 27.7 97.3 11.8 96.3 Raina-II 29168 13416 7914 1052 21254 12316 29168 13368 27.1 100.0 7.8 99.6 Khandaghosh 34590 19401 7974 1250 13725 10013 21699 11263 23.1 62.7 6.4 58.1 Memari-I 42139 18920 16561 3028 8263 6253 24824 9281 39.3 58.9 16.0 49.1 Memari-II 29016 15788 9226 1510 3796 3086 13022 4596 31.8 44.9 9.6 29.1 Jamalpur 51610 26196 15967 2143 4549 2598 20516 4741 30.9 39.8 8.2 18.1 Kalna-I 37731 24566 14147 5081 1105 1072 15252 6153 37.5 40.4 20.7 25.0 Kalna-II 32534 20929 11170 2641 921 863 12091 3504 34.3 37.2 12.6 16.7 Monteswar 48803 21682 13554 2281 7492 7064 21046 9345 27.8 43.1 10.5 43.1 Purbasthali-I 40944 29063 14402 5793 12815 11040 27217 16833 35.2 66.5 19.9 57.9 Purbasthali-II 42951 25394 10897 3034 5493 5418 16390 8452 25.4 38.2 11.9 33.3 Katwa-I 32627 16918 8585 1611 4602 3930 13187 5541 26.3 40.4 9.5 32.8 Katwa-II 26942 14012 7483 1092 3217 2885 10700 3977 27.8 39.7 7.8 28.4 Mongalkote 50618 23621 9037 1136 5184 4025 14221 5161 17.9 28.1 4.8 21.8 Ketugram-I 30421 19383 4597 441 6518 3961 11115 4402 15.1 36.5 2.3 22.7 Ketugram-II 23426 15229 4218 830 2460 2200 6678 3030 18.0 28.5 5.5 19.9 Galsi-I 36289 18520 7498 586 2544 2513 10042 3099 20.7 27.7 3.2 16.7 Faridpur-
Durgapur
22973 10839 6347 428 2296 1775 8643 2203 27.6 37.6 3.9 20.3 Andal 35914 8819 17126 1450 2672 2533 19798 3983 47.7 55.1 16.4 45.2 Kanksa 29954 15437 8699 1687 4222 3205 12921 4892 29.0 43.1 10.9 31.7 Pandaveswar 36077 13857 13851 1190 660 650 14511 1840 38.4 40.2 8.6 13.3 Raniganj 20527 4213 6727 271 1805 1388 8532 1659 32.8 41.6 6.4 39.4 Jamuria 24527 9506 5722 485 2289 1017 8011 1502 23.3 32.7 5.1 15.8 Barabani 22600 7989 3894 229 1194 279 5088 508 17.2 22.5 2.9 6.4 Salanpur 19406 3423 6721 162 333 172 7054 334 34.6 36.3 4.7 9.8 BURDWAN 1041902 538809 288580 50513 200754 155953 489334 206466 27.7 47.0 9.4 38.3
2 As a large and substantial portion of the population is covered there are ` additivity' effects that arise, so that the benefits in terms of both health and well being would be large.
The frequency of diseases in the families have reduced substantially and medical expenses have fallen. This is bound to have a positive effect in reducing poverty. Also, the state subsidy for providing medicines through Rural Health Centres (RHCs) has come down, thereby recovering some of the expenditures on TSC.
The key to the success of TSC has obviously been the novel design and unconventional implementation methods used, along with the mechanism of incentives for implementing units. The conventional top-down approach of imposed development was abandoned in favour of involvement of NGOs, local bodies and most importantly the people. The promotion was also imaginative and functional. Not having a sanitary latrine was projected as something to be ashamed of. The rural society reacted strongly and adopted the product.
The very success of the programme has revealed certain inadequacies in the situation. As saturation is nearing, problems crop up. Several families are willing to install toilets but do not have a courtyard to place the toilet!. Some (the very poor) are unwilling to shell out even Rs 200, as the opportunity cost is felt to be too high. Unless endowments improve there would be difficulties in carrying the movement to cover the entire population.
Table 2: Progress of School Sanitation Programme in Burdwan District No. of Schools
Blocks Total With Latrine With Drinking Water 2001 2003 2001 2003
Memari-II 116 28 116 68 116
Raina-II 112 18 112 45 112
Memari-I 110 83 110 93 110
Kanksa 109 13 109 101 109
Raniganj 42 11 42 10 42
Monteswar 175 23 175 127 175
Katwa-I 98 14 98 64 98
Khandaghosh 141 5 141 36 141
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